AHC: Confine the Industrial Revolution to Britain

Up until the 1850s, industry hadn't really spread out of the British Isles to anywhere else in Europe and your mission, if you choose to accept it, is keep things that way - prevent Continental Europe and the United States from industrialising for as long as possible.

Some initial ideas:

(1) Perhaps a longer Napoleonic Wars which cuts off contact between Britain and the continent (meaning that Britain's industrial secrets are better kept for longer),

(2) Europeans and Americans are just generally unlucky in finding coal deposits, or

(3) Protectionism remains widespread for longer, meaning that there is less investment by British businesses into Continental Europe.
 
Considering the organizational aspects of Industrialization are already in place via the centeralizing of certain aspects of production since before Napoleon, you're going to be hard pressed to keep mass production contained at least in the sense of avoiding the organization of urban workshops and consolidation of related trades into a single facility to streamline production... at which point the implimentation of machines to at least assist production and exploiting steam engines is just obvious and even advantagious to to the guilds (who would be the main faction with the ability to oppose industrialization). Maybe the Catholic Church takes a hardline stance on the practice of young women working outside the home, thus reducing deproffesionalization of such things as early stages of textile productions and help perpetuate the "putting out" system? That would make the higher-skilled/more complicated stages the ones that would be most centeralized, but also the ones that could be least mechanized, while things such as spinning wool into yarn that easily could would lack the concentration to be worth investing in mechanization, at least in highly pious areas.

Add in the possible non-simplication of the political structure of the HRE by it being dissolved and consolidated, thus leaving in place the 300 + customs barriers and all the petty feudal dues and fees involved, and there's a good chance you could make this work. Avoiding the French Revolution probably helps as well: since the best way to do that would be re-implimenting price controls on bread and protectionist barriers in France against cheap competition, and by avoiding the restructuring of the state and demands of mobalizing the whole nation for war you don't see the crash, state-supported consolidiation of things like arms production.

Of course, this only slows things down. At some point, there's going to be a market where somebody calculates that costs are going to be more than made up for in mechanizing and rationalizing production, which feeds into a much higher rate of national output and thus increased military and economic power, which lets them pry open previously closed markets...
 
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I think other countries besides England (and FWIW Scotland) industrializing falls along the lines of inevitability. Why would competitor countries forego the advantages that come with urbanization, mass production, and other economic efficiencies?
 
The problem is your basic premise is flawed. By 1850 industrialisation has already spread way beyond Britain. France,Germany and the USA have already seen their first railways and modern factories.

None of your three ideas would work in 1800 let alone 1850. Indeed I don't think there is a POD that can achieve what you want. State control is too weak and technological networks of knowledge exchange too strong.
 
Up until the 1850s, industry hadn't really spread out of the British Isles to anywhere else in Europe and your mission, if you choose to accept it, is keep things that way - prevent Continental Europe and the United States from industrialising for as long as possible.

Some initial ideas:

(1) Perhaps a longer Napoleonic Wars which cuts off contact between Britain and the continent (meaning that Britain's industrial secrets are better kept for longer),

(2) Europeans and Americans are just generally unlucky in finding coal deposits, or

(3) Protectionism remains widespread for longer, meaning that there is less investment by British businesses into Continental Europe.

Belgium was some sort of 'industrialised' after Britain and especially by tje 1850s. A PoD in the 18th century + a lot of luck is necessary.
 
My thought would be the British government realizes the benefits of industrialization and refuses to help anyone else.
That runs into the problem of state control being weak though.
 
You could probably have industrialisation knocked back a decade or two at the most in Europe if there was a large scale revolt by luddites. The best time for this to happen would be in a tumultuous time such as 1848. Maybe have an influential figure rise to prominence who never managed to OTL.

Perhaps even have it framed in a Christian frame work. Maybe about how industrialisation creating wealth will inevitably create a decadent and degenerate society.

Kinda clutching at straws here.
 
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